In the printing industry a phototypesetting process is one of the means used for printing various articles, reports, prospectus, etc. especially when speed is a factor. Typically, this process includes a camera for exposing film to letters or other figures which ultimately will appear as the printed material. The film is inserted into the camera on a load spool and passed across a plate where it is exposed to a screen which imparts to the film the desired letters or figures. From the plate the exposed film is passed through rollers to an exit slot where the film is rolled onto a film take-up reel exterior to the camera. The film take-up reels which have been used fit into a cassette adjacent the exit slot of the camera where the reels are secured to rotatable means in the cassette by an electric motor. The motor is in turn synchronized with the operation of the load spool such that as the film is passed through the camera the take-up reel will be rotated at the same rate as the film is being played off of the load spool.
To secure this film to the take-up reel the film is simply passed through a slot and the reel is manually rotated several revolutions until the film is wrapped around the reel a sufficient number of times so that it will not slip during operation of the camera. This method of securing film to the reel results in significant waste since that portion of the film on the reel is not available for exposure by the camera. Further, there is no uniformity as to the manner in which the film is secured to the take-up reel as each operator can use a diferent number of revolutions as he thinks are necessary. Consequently, the amount of film wasted is a function of the particular operator as well as the configuration of the take-up reel.